City looks for budget boost

CITY HALL — Fees and rates attached to some city services, such as trash pick-up and the city’s Beeline buses, could increase as city officials try to balance stagnant revenues with the increasing costs of service, officials said.

“We are at the point where we are consuming every bit of money each year that we are making,” Public Works Director Steve Zurn said of operating the city’s bus and Dial-A-Ride service. “It’s time for us to get together to talk about what the future is of our lines and service.”

Zurn said he will soon present the City Council with the findings of a survey on usage of the city’s many bus routes as well as the potential for service cuts and a fare increase. The bus costs 25 cents per ride.

The potential rate increases were discussed Monday at a City Council budget meeting focusing on parts of the city budget outside the roughly $164-million General Fund.

While the General Fund, which supports much of the city’s daily operations, often draws the most attention at City Hall, the majority of the city’s more than $800-million annual budget is in other funds.

At Monday’s presentation, which focused on the city’s Public Works and Fire departments, officials from both departments discussed the potential for new fees or increases for current rates in the coming year.

Zurn said a higher rate for bus service could help the city’s transit fund, which relies entirely on property tax revenues set aside for transit operations. Those revenues remained stagnant as operational costs continue to rise.

Public Works has also proposed a 3% rate increase for trash pick-up to meet the rising costs of disposal, and is also analyzing the city’s wastewater rates.

“We are probably in the lowest 5% of cities in the area,” Zurn said of the city’s current wastewater rates.

During the Fire Department’s presentation, Chief Harold Scoggins suggested a potential paramedic service fee in which all Glendale property owners would pay $60 annually for paramedic service fee.

The fee could bring in additional revenue for the city’s paramedic fund, which has struggled to support a rising call load, Scoggins said.

The fund will also benefit from a change approved by the City Council last year that replaced two firefighters on each ambulance per day with non-sworn emergency medical technicians to go on less serious emergency calls.

The new system saves about $700,000 annually, he said.

Scoggins also suggested a potential “high user impact fee” for medical facilities that use the city’s ambulance services most.

Council members defended the cost of the city’s paramedic service, which city critics have railed against as an inefficient use of city resources. A private company used to provide all ambulance service in the city.

“It’s not just about the cost, not just about the training,” said Councilman John Drayman. “It’s about the level of interest and the level of care.”